A special tribunal for Lebanon has issued indictments for four people in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Lebanese official with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday.

A U.N. source familiar with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said the people include alleged perpetrators on the ground. The next two lists of indictments are expected later this summer and are expected to include the organizers and planners of the attack, the source said.

Suspected connections of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and the Syrian government to the killing have raised tensions in the country, stoking fears of sectarian conflict erupting in the ethnically and religiously diverse nation, which endured a civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Hezbollah has had longstanding animosity toward the tribunal because it is based on the expectation that some of its members will be indicted as conspirators in Hariri's assassination.

Hezbollah is a political faction in Lebanon and provides social services to Shiites, but it has long been regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and an ally of Iran.

The movement, which fought a war on Lebanese soil with Israel five years ago, claims the tribunal is a plot involving the United States, Israel and France. Ibrahim Mousawi, a Hezbollah media relations officer, said it had no immediate reaction to the indictments.

Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed on February 14, 2005, when a bomb went off as his motorcade passed by. Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri's son and a former Lebanese prime minister, said on Thursday the indictments were issued after years "of patience and waiting and a constant national struggle."

Saad Hariri called on all factions to accept Lebanon's "obligations" to the tribunal and that "there is no excuse for anyone to escape from this responsibility."

"Today, we witness a distinctive historic moment in the life of Lebanon's political, judicial security, and ethical systems. And I feel in the beat of my heart, the embrace of all the hearts of the Lebanese, who defended the cause of justice and refused to bargain on the blood of the martyrs," Saad Hariri said in a statement.

Rafik Hariri was 60 when he was killed, a self-made Sunni billionaire of humble origins. His son Saad, 40, leads a political bloc known as "March 14," which includes prominent Christian leaders. The group's adversaries included Hezbollah and other factions.

Syria had thousands of troops in Lebanon and great influence in the country until mass protests after Hariri's assassination forced their withdrawal.

Six years later, the shadow cast by that day still hangs over Lebanon, which finds itself amid a political crisis -- in part caused by a bitter divide over the country's special tribunal that is tasked with investigating Hariri's assassination.

Earlier this year, Hezbollah brought down Saad Hariri's government. His replacement is prime minister, Najib Mikati, a Sunni political independent who was backed by Hezbollah and its allies.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in January that Hezbollah nominated Mikati to form "a national salvation government in which parties from across the political spectrum would take part."

Nasrallah disputed the view that Mikati is a Hebollah figure. He said Mikati is a consensus candidate and "we will not lead the new government and it will not be the government of Hezbollah."

Besides being prime minister of Lebanon for 10 years between 1992 and 2004, Rafik Hariri was the driving force behind Beirut's renaissance as a Mediterranean jewel, investing in the restoration of a city center that not so long before had been the frontline in Lebanon's civil war.



 

Taken from CNN.com